Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 4

Meteor lights up northern New Zealand skies


stuff.co.nz
Wed, 30 Aug 2017 18:40 UTC
Stargazers
© Fred ThornhillStargazers in northern parts of the country were treated to a "fantastic sight". (File photo)
A long-tailed meteor was seen streaking across the sky on Tuesday evening.

People in northern parts of New Zealand witnessed a "shooting star" travelling west to east across the "orange sunset backdrop" at about 6:30pm.

Stargazers from Hamilton to Whangarei posted their sightings on the WeatherWatch website.

One person in Tauranga saw a "fairly sizeable fireball" trailing behind it, while someone in Auckland said it had "a red/blue head".
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Fireball 4

Meteor fireball streaks across US east coast skies


The Fauquier Times
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 03:30 UTC
Fireball
© UTSC
Did you see a fireball streak across the sky tonight? You weren't alone.

A bright green meteor was spotted across Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia about 9:14 p.m., prompting more than 50 reports to the American Meteor Society. A high concentration of sightings came from the D.C. area.

"Glowing bright near the ball and lasting on its own fading at the tail," one Arlington resident wrote.

Comment: The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received over 710 reports about a fireball seen over VA, DC, PA, NJ, NY, MD, WV, RI, District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, CT, New Jersey, West Virginia, OH and DE on Saturday, August 26th 2017 around 01:15 UT.

AMS event 2925-2017
© AMS (screen capture)AMS observers map - event 2925-2017


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Fireball

Meteor shower from dead comet arises again after 58 years


National University Sokendai
Fri, 25 Aug 2017 15:42 UTC
Japanese astronomers observed the elusive "Phoenicid meteor shower" and have determined that it was spawned by the now vanished Comet Blanpain. They also found that Comet Blanpain was active, though only weakly, in the early 20th Century. This is the first time that researchers could determine the activity of a comet by observing its associated meteor shower. These results are important for understanding the evolution of minor bodies in the Solar System.

Phoenicid meteor shower
© Photo: Hiroyuki Toda/NAOJA bright member of the Phoenicid meteor shower appears at the bottom left of this photo taken at 02h15m39s UT on December 2, 2014. The Moon is captured to the lower right of center in the photo. Camera: Pentax K-3 + SIGMA 4.5mm F2.8, 3 second exposure time, at Sandy Point, North Carolina, U.S.A…
The Phoenicid meteor shower (named after the constellation Phoenix) was discovered by the first Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition on December 5, 1956, during their voyage in the Indian Ocean. However, it has not been observed again. This has left astronomers with a mystery: where did the Phoenicids come from and where did they go?
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Fireball 2

Large meteor fireball filmed over Krugersdorp, South Africa

Jan Breytenbach
You Tube
Tue, 22 Aug 2017 19:32 UTC
fireball

A massive meteorite was spotted entering the earth's atmosphere at 18H59 today over Krugersdorp in South Africa.

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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball recorded over Morocco

Meteors
YouTube
Mon, 21 Aug 2017 06:24 UTC
Meteor fireball over Morocco
© YouTube/Meteors (screen capture)
This fireball was recorded on the night of 21 August 2017 at 2:41 local time (0:41 universal time). The fireball began over Morocco at a height of about 107 km and ended at an altitude of around 71 km above the Mediterranean Sea. It was recorded in the framework of the SMART Project from the astronomical observatories of Calar Alto (Almería, Spain), Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain), La Sagra (Granada, Spain), Sevilla and Huelva.

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Fireball

Night sky meteor fireball stuns residents of Warwick, Australia

Jonno Colfs
Warwick Daily News
Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:07 UTC
fireball
© Flickr Creative Commons
Social media lit up as bright as the sky last night in Warwick with reports of a large fireball in the eastern sky.

Residents from across the region recounted seeing a bright meteor in the sky towards the Great Diving Range for a few second before it dipped from sight at about 8pm yesterday.

Eyewitness reports indicated the light in the sky was "low and bright".

It's possible the meteor was a remnant of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the brighter meteor showers of the year, which occurs every year between July 17 and August 24.

The shower tends to peak around August 9-13.

Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years, such as last year, the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour.

The meteor was seen by residents in Warwick and further afield including Leyburn.
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Fireball

Meteor fireball streaks over Southern California

lightvalve
YouTube
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 19:20 UTC
Fireball over SO Cal
© Via YouTube/lightvalve
AMS Event 2579 2017 - Meteor streaks over California. Video from South East facing Nest Cam, August 5, 2017 10:01PM 31 seconds

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Meteor fireball flies over central Florida

International Meteor Organization
YouTube
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 19:54 UTC
Central Florida fireball
© Via YouTube/International Meteor Organization
Caught this meteor over Florida i am using 3 Axis 1435-E IP cameras this was the East camera the frame is centered at 125 degrees

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Fireball

Asteroid Florence to sweep past Earth on September 1st

Eddie Irizarry
Earth Sky Org
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 18:38 UTC
Named for Florence Nightingale, asteroid 3122 Florence is the biggest near-Earth object to pass this close since this category of objects was discovered over a century ago! It might be visible in binoculars.
Asteroid 3122 Florence
© StellariumAsteroid 3122 Florence – named for the founder of modern nursing – on August 27 at 11:50 pm CDT as seen from central U.S. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.
The next attraction coming up in our skies after the spectacular total solar eclipse of August 21 might be an asteroid big enough to be seen in small telescopes, and maybe even in binoculars, as a small, very slow-moving "star." Asteroid 1981 ET3 - also known as 3122 Florence - is a huge space rock at least 2.7 miles (4.35 km) in diameter. According to Paul Chodas at the Center for Near Earth Object Studies:
Florence is the largest asteroid to pass this close to our planet since the first near-Earth asteroid was discovered over a century ago.
Asteroid 3122 Florence will safely pass by our planet on September 1, 2017 at over 18 times the Earth-moon distance. The asteroid will not be visible to the unaided eye. It will, however, become visible in small amateur telescopes by late August, in the course of what will become the closest encounter to Earth by this asteroid since 1890.
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Fireball

Homeowner who heard a loud bang discovers a 15-inch wide blazing crater in his garden in Appling, Georgia

Dave Burke
Daily Mail
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 14:27 UTC
Meteor hole
A stunned homeowner in Georgia has spoken about the moment a glowing red meteor crashed outside his house, leaving a huge crater.

Jay Sullivent heard a loud bang while he was at home in Appling, and initially thought it was a car crash.

Unable to find a wreckage he took a walk around his lawn before stumbling on a burned circle of grass with smoke rising from it.

The drama happened on July 21.

When he approached, Mr Sullivent discovered the middle was alight, with a pink rock in the middle.

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